NOTEBOOK: Soliai And Fields Brighten Christmas Eve; Other Notes

Dolphins defensive tackle and punter visited local orphanage.

Even when the cameras are nowhere to be found, Miami Dolphins punter Brandon Fields and nose tackle Paul Soliai still saw to it that those less fortunate were not forgotten this holiday season.

Fields and Soliai visited His House Children’s Home on Christmas Eve to brighten the day and evening for the 145 children living there. They provided dinner from a wish list put together by each child and the two players and their families each adopted a house that serves as a home to 10 kids.

“They have different wings of buildings where groups of kids live like a family and they have a few house parents that look over them, but it’s different from a traditional foster home,” Fields explained. “We brought dinner over from Publix to celebrate Christmas Eve dinner and we brought them some gifts (including movie gift cards) to open up and enjoy Christmas. We spent a few hours with them playing some games and my wife made gingerbread men so we shared those with them.”

Fields wasn’t finished showing off the holiday spirit. He and his wife Katie visited the pediatric ward at Broward General Hospital on Christmas Day to help brighten the day for the kids and parents.

“We visited the ER and the neo-natal unit and spent some time with the kids there and the parents of babies in the neo-natal unit,” Fields said. “We’re just trying to give back to kids as much as we can and spend time with them. There are a lot of people going through hardships and what not, especially around the holidays.”

POUNCEY AND JONES DRAW PRAISE NATIONALLY

As thrilled as South Florida football fans are for defensive end Cameron Wake making it to his second Pro Bowl in three years, they also are aware that a few of his teammates could have been joining him in Hawaii. They are not alone in their thoughts.

Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com identified who he believed were the biggest snubs when it came to the Pro Bowl voting and he singled out Dolphins center Mike Pouncey and safety Reshad Jones.

“Mike was the better Pouncey this year in the AFC,” Rosenthal wrote. “His twin brother, Maurkice, just has the reputation.”

When it came to Jones, Rosenthal didn’t only choose Jones as a safety in the AFC that should be making a trip to Hawaii.

“The entire AFC safety group was botched,” Rosenthal wrote. “Ed Reed made it on reputation. LaRon Landry and Eric Berry made it partially because they have notable names and partially because the NFL insists we split free safeties and strong safeties in the voting. The game isn't played that way anymore, and the voting rules don't make sense.”

## There is still four days left until New Year’s Eve, but whoever picks the music during stretching and warm-ups had a little fun by opening things up with “Auld Lang Syne” by Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians. It went a little more up-tempo after that with Ini Kamoze’s “Here Comes The Hotstepper,” and “Empire State Of Mind” by Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys finished things off.